After months of delays and teaser promos, Verizon Wireless officially announced the release date and pricing for the much-anticipated Motorola Droid Bionic.

Available starting Thursday, September 8, for $299.99 with a two-year contract, the Droid Bionic is the carrier's first 4G smartphone to feature a dual-core 1GHz processor, more specifically TI's OMAP 4 chipset. If you've been following the smartphone since its introduction at CES 2011, you'll know that the use of TI's OMAP processor is a switch from the original Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset.

That's not the only change either. Originally slated for a Q2 release, Verizon and Motorola delayed the launch to make enhancements to the handset in order to provide "an even better consumer experience." According to Motorola, those enhancements include a thinner design with premium finishes, 1080p HD video capture, more enterprise features, and battery optimization.

The Droid Bionic will also ship running the latest Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread software out of the box and will come with a number of preloaded apps. One app that the companies are pushing in particular is ZumoCast, which offers remote access to your videos, music, pictures, and documents stored on your PC or Mac. The smartphone also comes with Video Surf, a Shazam-like app for videos, Motoprint for wireless printing, NFL Mobile (free on all Verizon's 4G phones), and support for Netflix.

Nine months after its introduction, the Motorola Droid Bionic will finally be available from Verizon on September 8.
Motorola

Like the Motorola Photon 4G and Atrix 4G, the Droid Bionic also features the Webtop app that gives you access to a Firefox 4 browser and allows you to view the contents of your phone on a TV or monitor when the phone is docked to a special accessory, such as the HD station, Lapdock, or Webtop adapter.

Pricing for the accessories starts at $29.99 for the Webtop adapter, $99.99 for the HD station, and $299.99 for the Lapdock. For a limited time, Verizon customers who purchase the Droid Bionic and the Lapdock together with a $50 5GB data plan or higher will get a $100 mail-in rebate. Other available accessories include a car mount for $39.99 and a battery dock, with an extra compartment to charge a second battery, for $49.99.

Though it's nice to have all these extra goodies, the Motorola Droid Bionic has plenty to offer on its own. The Android superphone boasts a 4.3-inch qHD touch screen with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, an 8-megapixel main camera, and a front-facing VGA camera with support for Google video chat over 4G, 3G, and Wi-Fi. The handset also has 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, and comes preinstalled with a 16GB microSD card, though the expansion slot can support up to 32GB cards.

On paper, the smartphone certainly looks like a winner, but does it actually live up to all the hype? Check out CNET's review of the Motorola Droid Bionic to find out.

About the author

Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
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